Friday, 30 August 2013

Margaret Atwood, Seamus Heaney
and Colum McCann are sold out but there’s still tickets available for some of
this year’s highlights including Booker Prize winner, Anne Enright, last year’s
Irish Times Poetry Now Award winner Michael Longley and creator of The Fast Show
Charlie Higson. And for fans of TV drama in our very special writing for
television event we are delighted to welcome the writers of The Fall, Spooks and
The Bridge to the Festival.

For more information on these events and many others
go to www.mountainstosea.ie and don’t forget to book soon to avoid
disappointment. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the festival!

The shortlist has been announced for The Irish Times Poetry Now award worth €2,500

Harry Clifton was nominated for The Winter Sleep of Captain Lemass,
which is published by Bloodaxe Books. Clifton was Ireland professor of
Poetry in 2010 to 2013, and won the Patrick Kavanagh award in 1981. He
has published six collections, and is a previous winner of the Irish Times Poetry Now award. The Winter Sleep
is “a reckoning with a lost political legacy, a meditation on love,
marriage and middle age, and a reaching-back into foreign ancestry”.

James Harpur has published five poetry books and is poetry editor of the Temenos Academy Review.
His latest collection “jour- neys into realms seen and unseen, ranging
from the landscapes of Ireland to the visionary realms of the mystics”.

Dennis O’Driscoll has published ninecollections of poetry, a collection of essays and reviews and Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney. He has previously won a Lannan Literary Award and the EM Forster Award. He died late last year. Dear Life
features “contemporary issues – the internet era, global warming – as
well as providing fresh perspectives on the timeless topics of working
and ageing, loving and dying, God and Mammon”.

Catherine Phil MacCarthy is the author of four poetry books, a former editor of Poetry Ireland Review, and was writer in residence for the city of Dublin. The Invisible Threshold explores “the ‘liminal’, the state of being in transition from one moment to the next”.Mark Roper won the 1992 Aldeburgh Prize for best first collection was editor of Poetry Ireland Review. A Gather of Shadow is“a deeply personal record of the loss of his mother”.

Thursday, 29 August 2013

The Irish Writers Centre has launched the next Novel Fair. The last two have been very successful in getting novels to publishers and out there. I do wonder how many of those already published or nearly there would have been picked up anyway.

The Prize

Twelve entrants will be anonymously selected by a judging
panel to take part in the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair on February
22nd, 2014. Each writer will have a stand at the Fair where they will
present the synopsis of their novel, the finished novel itself and
biographical material. Top Irish publishers and agents will be invited
to the Irish Writers’ Centre to meet these writers in person.

Entry Details

There is no limitation on style, genre, or target market,
the only requirement being that the writer has not published a novel
before.

Tuesday, 27 August 2013

Fresh from their triumphant appearance at Babble Festival in Cavan, The Poetry Divas will be making a welcome return to Electric Picnic.

When: Sunday 1st September
What time: 1.30 pm or thereabouts.
Where : The Word Stage, Mindfield

What: Start your Sunday off with some poetry. You know you want to.

Mindfield is that part of Electric Picnic where you never know what to expect. There's spoken word and cabaret, theatre and parliament, Science Gallery and the Theatre of Food. Make sure your weekend includes a taste of Mindfield.

Our buddies at Brownbread mixtape have two shows at Electric Picnic this year. The Word stage in Mindfield. 4pm Saturday and 5pm Sunday. Well worth a look-see.

Nighthawks are also there and their lineup is a great mix. 5pm Saturday and 6pm Sunday.

And our friends at Caca Milis Cabaret are oozing with deliciousness too.

The Science Gallery always have events to spark ideas including the ever-popular Ignite.

On Saturday 31st August at 1pm, there are some debut novelists reading at the Irish Writers Centre.

It's free and everyone's welcome.

Join us at the Centre for another Lunchtime Reading. This afternoon we
have two new new writers who's debut novels have both been met with a
great deal of fanfare. Niamh and Janet secured book deals following the
Centre's inaugural Novel Fair competition. Niamh's debut The Herbalist,
published by Penguin Ireland, is a rich multi-layered story of life in
1930s Ireland told through the eyes of four women, each of whose lives
is changed irrevocably by the herbalist. Janet's novel Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World,
published by Hachette, is the story of a restless kid growing up in
rural Nova Scotia in the late 1980s, whose world comes to an end when he
discovers that he’s in love with his best friend Mark.

Both
writers will read from their work and muse on the challenges facing new
writers - in particular how one sets about promoting their own work.'

Sunday, 25 August 2013

In addition to our well established Open Competition, now in its fourth year for those over 18, we have introduced a Young Persons Award in which there are two categories; one for those who are 10-14 years old and one for those aged 14-18 years.

Sir Andrew Motion will judge the Open Competition and both sections of the Young Persons Award.

The Vorse Scribbin Awardis
an Award to celebrate Bunting’s Northern heritage and is open to those
living in the north east. This award will be judged by Hexham based
poet Christy Ducker.

Deadline: 30th September 2013

The fee for the first poem is £8.00 and for any further poems £3.00 each

Open Awards

First Prize £1000

Second Prize £500

Third Prize £250

Up to three commendations of £50 each

The poems will be judged anonymously but Readers may be used to help the judge in choosing a long list

The prizes will be presented at the Awards Ceremony to be held on Friday 29th November 2013 at The Queens Hall in Hexham when Sir Andrew Motion will also give a public poetry reading.

Friday, 23 August 2013

Piatkus Entice, pioneers of romance digital publishing and the
online home of such internationally famous authors as Sherrilyn
Kenyon, Eloisa James and Christine Feehan, have teamed up with the Festival of Romance to offer you a fantastic opportunity!

We’re giving aspiring authors the chance to win an ebook publishing contract with Piatkus Entice. The
winning author will receive intensive editorial guidance, publicity
and marketing support and a contract with Piatkus Entice for the
publication of the novel as an ebook.

I want in! How do I enter?

Just email the first two chapters of your novel and a
short, enticing synopsis of no more than 100 words to
Piatkus.Entice@littlebrown.co.uk

Deadline: 2nd
September.

Your submission can be any genre of romance writing you can
think of, but please attach it as a Word document, with the subject
line ‘Piatkus Entice competition’. All submissions will be read and
considered by the Entice Team who will, after copious cups of fortifying
tea, compile a shortlist of their three favourite submissions.

Prizes

ADDITIONAL PRIZE, a personal tour with Mark Cocker of his most cherished wild life places in East Anglia.

You can submit up to six poems in one batch, the first poem includes
an administration fee. If you wish to submit more than six poems you
will need to make a second submission which will include a second
submission fee.

About the
Author: Norwegian author Kjersti
Annesdatter Skomsvold (born 3 December 1979 in Oslo) made her literary debut in
2009 with the novel Jo fortere jeg går, jo mindre er jeg (The Faster I Walk, The
Smaller I Am). The book was nominated for the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize and
won the Tarjei Vesaas' Debutant Prize (judged by The Literary Council of The
Norwegian Authors´ Union). It was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin
Literary Award 2013. In 2012 Skomsvold published her second novel,
Monstermenneske (Monsterhuman) which will be released in English in 2014 by
Dalkey Archive Press.

First
Prize is £500 plus a week’s writer’s retreat at Chawton House Library
and the chance to discuss their work in person with Firefly editors
Penny Thomas and Janet Thomas, with the possibility of developing their
book for publication. The week at Chawton House Library (CHL) is
accommodation only, dates to be agreed between CHL and the competition
winner. The prize must be taken before the end of 2015.The two runners up will receive prizes of £50 plus free editorial advice.

Under the direction of Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, the Manchester Writing School
at Manchester Metropolitan University is launching the 2013 Manchester
Poetry and Fiction Prizes – major international literary competitions,
celebrating excellence in creative writing, and open to anyone aged 16
or over (with no upper age limit).

The Manchester Writing Competition began in 2008, funded in the
first instance by the University’s innovative Enterprise Fellowship
scheme. The project was designed to attract the best new writing from
around the world, and to establish Manchester as the focal point for a
major literary award. Since it began, the Competition has awarded more
than £50,000 to its winners.

Initially, the Competition alternated annually between Poetry and
Fiction but, from 2013, both will be running every year, with £10,000* awarded to the writer of the best portfolio of poetry, and another £10,000* to the writer of the best short story.

Entry Fee £17
Poetry- All entrants are asked to submit a portfolio of three-to-five poems (total maximum combined length: 120 lines).
Short Fiction - All entrants are asked to submit a story of up to 2,500 words in length.

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

I hope to see a load of you this Friday 16th August in Cavan, at the Open Mic as part of the Babble Literary Festival. It's hosted by the lovely people at Cavan Creative Writers' Forum. 8pm Blessings Bar. Come and say hello. Come and read some poetry. Come and listen.

The
Babble Festival weekend will start on Friday night with Poetry Slam
supremo Stephen James Smith and he Fabulous Poetry Divas in Blessings Bar in Cavan Town plus readings
and music. An afternoon on the Saturday writing workshop with Tom
McIntyre at the Backyard Arts Centre, Moynehall, Cavan. A debut of a new
play by Cavan-based playwright, Tara Maria Lovett at Chapter 1, Cavan
and an open air concert with Mundy on Saturday night. The Festival ends
with the official launch of the “Babble Journal 2013” by keynote author,
teacher & Fermanagh resident Carlo Gébler at the Kilmore Hotel in
Cavan.

The members of Cavan Creative Writers’ Forum came up with the name Babble
for this summer’s literary festival. The name was chosen for a number of
reasons.

Firstly, the group felt that water was the powerful and fluid
connective between counties in this border area. The ‘babbling’ fluidity
of the porous Lakeland region was seen as a byword for the more static
and hackneyed emblem of the bridge, often referred to in the Peace
building measure. Water, the Forum believes has more kinetic power to
flow, change and it transgresses most rigid or mapped borders between
lands, people, communities and nationalities.

Secondly, the Forum chose Babble for its slightly subversive and
quirky quality. In many ways, all talk is nonsense — right back to our
pre-verbal cries, gurgles and babble. Moreover, all talk, chatter and
verbal exchanges flow in one stream or another gushing or pooling to
shape the written words of literature. Sometimes, art and literature can
be seen as elitist, lofty and exclusionary (especially by non-writers).
Therefore, in choosing Babble it decided to undercut that notion and
dispel any assumptions of pretentiousness in a good humoured way— as
satirical literary journals such as Blather (Flann O’Brien et al) once did!

Sunday, 11 August 2013

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre’s mission is to inspire in
everyone a love of creative writing and reading using the Roald Dahl
Archive, his stories and his life. We seek a variety of ways to engage
children, families and life-long learners with books and creative
expression both at the Museum and through outreach work. Our Residency
programme forms a fundamental and exciting part of our mission.

From
November 2013 to February 2014 we would like to work with a poet to
continue to enrich Roald Dahl’s legacy. The poet will be involved in the
delivery of a number of projects, including workshops to students in
targeted Buckinghamshire schools, and family events at the Museum during
school holidays. The poet will also have five days set aside to work on
their own piece of writing. We would love the poet to spend time
working in Roald Dahl’s chair in our replica Writing Hut!

Deadline: Monday 19 August.
Interviews will take place in the week beginning Monday 2 September.

Friday, 9 August 2013

Baileborough have a competition for their first poetry festival on the weekend of 4th and 5th October this year.

The LitLab group of writers are hosting a weekend of readings,
workshops, a poetry competition and launch of a new anthology of the
group’s work. Visiting poets will include; Nessa O’Mahony, Barbara
Smith, Heather Brett, Rebecca O Connor and Noel Monahan. The venues will
include the town library in the old Market Square, Bia restaurant and
the Wesleyan Church. In conjunction with the poetry festival there will
be a quilt exhibition hanging in the arts space of the library.

Go to the Cara Poetry Competition website here and take a look at the quilts then write (or adapt) a poem inspired by one of them.

Poems must be about, or inspired by, any of the quilts exhibited on the page.

Deadline Friday 13th September.

First prize of €250 for winning poem

All shortlisted poems will be featured at a reading at Bailieborough
Poetry Festival on Saturday 5th October 2013, and authors will be
invited to attend.

Each poem must not exceed 50 lines, and should be typed, single-spaced. Please identify the quilt to which each poem relates.

Wednesday, 7 August 2013

The Charles Macklin Autumn School will take
place from Thursday 10 October 2013 to Sunday 14 October 2013. The
weekend is dedicated to local playwright and actor Charles Macklin who
was born in 1690 and died in 1797 aged 107.

The Charles Macklin Poetry Prize 2013

There are three cash prizes for a single unpublished poem.

1st prize - €200

2nd prize - €100

3rd prize - €50

There will also be three highly commended poems chosen.

Winners shall be invited to read their poems at a prize-giving ceremony which will take place
during The Charles Macklin Autumn School 10th – 13th October 2013 in Culdaff,
Inishowen, Co Donegal.

The poem can be of any length but must be no longer than 40 lines.
The entry fee is €8 per poem.

Saturday, 3 August 2013

Attend a writing workshop
in the beautiful surrounds of National Trust’s Castle Ward property.
Drawing inspiration from the Farmyard area of Castle Ward, taking in the
artists & makers of Castle Ward Arts & Crafts, these workshops
offer you the chance to gather material for your imagination and create
new work. Open to over 16s with all levels of experience - and all forms
of writing. The workshops are facilitated by Olive Broderick, verbal
artist with Castle Ward Arts & Crafts. Dates: 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31 August Time: 10.30am-12.30pm Venue: Farmyard, Castle Ward, Strangford. Cost: £3

No booking required. Come to the Trailblazer Cafe in the Farmyard,
Castle Ward for 10.30am on Saturday’s in August. Each workshop will have
a different theme so you are very welcome to attend one, a few or all
the workshops. Bring pen and paper! A small amount of walking involved.